The Nova Scotia Legislature concluded its fall session on Friday morning.
Prime Minister Tim Houston again apologized for his remarks about minimum-wage workers during the period. “I don’t know a lot of Scots who think, ‘Wow, I hope I get the minimum wages when I grow up.’ That’s not the way somebody think they want a real job,” Houston said during a debate with NDP chief Gary Burrell.
Houston quickly apologized for the comments, told reporters outside the Legislature he was wrong and confessed again on Friday.
“I was loose with my words, also I have to take responsibility for my words,” Houston said. “But of course, my words don’t reflect my true feelings. I have great esteem and admiration for every Scottish person, especially those who wake up every day and go to work and help this province move forward and protect us.
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Halifax Atlantic MLA Brendan Maguire caused some drama during the last session.
He was kicked out of the Legislature for questioning and criticizing Houston for his comments on his minimum wage. “I’m so angry that I went through this and did this job,” Maguire said. “This is a real job, and this is a real career, and people are trying to feed their families, and the excuses he makes are not excuses; they are distractions.”
It was the first face-to-face meeting of the Provincial Council in more than 18 months and the first for the afresh elected Progressive Conservative government. It’s been 12 years since computers took their place on the opposite side of the house with a government majority.
They used that majority to pass 19 new laws and directives to tackle the environmental and health concerns of the housing crisis.
“We’re proud of the meeting we hosted; we’ve accomplished a lot to move Nova Scotia forward,” Houston said, highlighting her environmental laws as the most ambitious and aggressive ecological policy in the nation, including a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
“As a new government, we are leapfrogging and advancing initiatives that are important to the people of Nova Scotia, such as healthcare recruitment, long-term care, mental health care, affordable housing, the environment, and the economy,” Houston said. The Tories kept important election promises and passed a law establishing a fixed election date for Nova Scotia. So far, the province is the only jurisdiction in the country that does not have a selected election date, but both opposition parties rejected the July election.
Houston said that the computers were chosen primarily because they promised to improve the health system, which will be a significant focus of government work in the coming months. “There is a lot to be done, especially in the health sector. “We’re seeing healthcare getting worse and worse, so we’re focusing a lot on that,” Houston said.
Source: Global News
